Thanksgiving Memories

With Thanksgiving just two sleeps away, I have been thinking about food. I’m thinking about the wonderful turkeys my mother used to make. She was a wonderful cook, but often doubted herself or just simply became nervous when time to make big meals. Maybe her anxiety made the meal all the better!

Well, anyway, she put the turkey of 12 pounds or so in the oven very early in the morning because she liked to slow cook almost anything she made. So, the turkey was dressed in lots of seasoning and legs tied together while it started making the house smell overly delicious.

What I liked best of all was the beautiful brown color she accomplished with roasting the bird and brushing butter on it from time to time. So, when the dressing was ready to join the turkey, she stuffed the inner body very tightly because she knew we loved the dressing for days after the big feast. While the turkey was roasting, she made the other delicious delights of this famous meal.

Sometimes she made what she called glorified rice and added raisins to it. She baked that, too, and it became beautiful brown rice with raisins. Hm, good.

We all loved cranberries and so she made a Jell-O dish with canned cranberries but often bought the real thing and made cranberries freshly cooked, as well. Either way was special.

Sweet potatoes were one of my favorite foods because mom baked them, and then when they were almost ready, she scooped out the insides and put that all in a bowl with brown sugar added. Oh, yes, I loved the brown sugar taste with the yams.

Because we did not have asparagus very often, it was a great addition at the Thanksgiving meal. I like it with butter, slightly salted, and not cooked to death.

Those are the main items, but no Thanksgiving meal is complete without pie. Absolutely! How many types for this day of thanks? For sure pumpkin is the all-time favorite, but lemon crème came in second, with mince maybe third. Of course, we had hot and tasty coffee to help enhance the taste of these sweets.

What more could a family want, but great food and joy on Thanksgiving Day? After many rounds of cheers and wine, we were feeling thankful and at peace. Some in my family were football fans, and so they watched the game, but some of us loved an afternoon nap, or even good card-playing fun. All in all, a wonderful day!

Mary Jane Berger, OSB

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash